Seymour Martin Lipset

Seymour Martin Lipset
Born(1922-03-18)March 18, 1922
New York City, New York, US
DiedDecember 31, 2006(2006-12-31) (aged 84)
Arlington, Virginia, US[1]
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisAgrarian Socialism (1949)
Academic work
Discipline
Sub-discipline
School or traditionBehaviourism
Institutions
Main interests
Notable works
  • "Some Social Requisites of Democracy" (1959)
  • Political Man (1960)
  • Party Systems and Voter Alignments (1967)

Seymour Martin Lipset (/ˈlɪpsɪt/ LIP-sit; March 18, 1922 – December 31, 2006) was an American sociologist and political scientist. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about the conditions for democracy in comparative perspective. He was president of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and the American Sociological Association (1992–1993). A socialist in his early life, Lipset later moved to the right, and was considered to be one of the first neoconservatives.[2][1]

At his death in 2006, The Guardian called him "the leading theorist of democracy and American exceptionalism";[2] The New York Times said he was "a pre-eminent sociologist, political scientist and incisive theorist of American uniqueness";[1] and The Washington Post said he was "one of the most influential social scientists of the past half century."[3]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference NYTimes obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Marks, Gary (January 11, 2007). "Seymour Martin Lipset: Scholar of democracy driven to understand American society". The Guardian.
  3. ^ McGovern, Patrick (January 14, 2010). "The young Lipset on the iron law of oligarchy: a taste of things to come" (PDF). The British Journal of Sociology. 61 (Suppl 1): 29–42. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01283.x. PMID 20092476.